[Joe Friday]

So why was this guy out of jail?

Friday, June 30, 2006
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer
A young New Orleans man who escaped a previous murder charge faces decades in prison for gunning down a drug-trade rival two years ago near the Guste public housing complex.

Twdarryl Toney, 23, helped pump some 30 bullets into Edward "Chocolate" Taylor on Feb. 8, 2004, during a shootout in Central City that also left a second man dead, a jury concluded this week after a three-day trial at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

The jury convicted Toney of manslaughter Wednesday night after hearing testimony in two second-degree murder charges that came from what prosecutors called a drug-trade gunfight, complete with an AK-47-style assault rifle and one victim being shot more than 30 times in the head.

Taylor and Larmondo "Flair" Allen died in the 2300 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard after being riddled with bullets.

But instead of murder, which carries automatic life in prison, the jury came back with the lesser charge of manslaughter for Taylor's killing and failed to reach any verdict on the second murder charge, in which prosecutors blamed Toney for the death of his one-time drug-dealing partner, Allen.

Taylor, 24, who prosecutors said was hired as a hit man to kill Allen that night, left a son and three daughters. Allen, 25, who like Toney had wrangled out of previous murder and other violent charges, was fatally wounded during the gunfight. He was a father to three sons and six daughters.

Toney faces up to 40 years for manslaughter, but District Attorney Eddie Jordan said he would ask the court to send him away for 20 to 80 years under the state's repeat-offender law.

Toney has a 2002 conviction for firing a gun into the air on New Year's Eve, which could lead to the extended prison term. He is due in court July 24 for sentencing before Judge Calvin Johnson....



It looks like the juries in these cases were actually Idiot Conventions. A bit like the O.J Simpson debacle in 1994-1995. :Hammer3: